“A bunch of garbage,” said Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern. He termed Mayorkas “a good man, a decent man,” just doing his job. Since Republican senators are opposed to impeaching Mayorkas, he is unlikely to be convicted in a Senate trial. The Senate might submit the subject to a committee for inquiry, delaying action.
“This baseless impeachment should never have moved forward,” said DHS spokesman Mia Ehrenberg. “If House Republicans are serious about border security, they should abandon these political games,” she added. After Republican efforts to impeach Biden over his son Hunter Biden's business activities stalled and the Biden family probe lingered, Mayorkas' impeachment was promptly added to the House calendar
Chairman Green's Homeland Security Committee has been investigating the secretary for a year, including the fentanyl imports. A resolution from Georgia Rep. Greene brought it to light. The commission quickly convened two sessions in January before issuing Mayorkas' two impeachment articles.
A almost empty chamber made the afternoon's argument lack the intensity and seriousness of earlier impeachment processes. Mayorkas was blamed for the “invasion” of migrants to the U.S. by Greene, a Senate impeachment manager. Arizona Republican Rep. Eli Crane called Mayorkas a “dereliction of duty.” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries claimed Republicans staged the Mayorkas impeachment vote to create “chaos and confusion” and placate Trump, not govern.
“No reasonable American can conclude that you're making life better for them by this sham impeachment,” Jeffries added. After the roll call stalled, the chamber erupted in anger and the vote failed. Gallagher, Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, and California Rep. Tom McClintock opposed impeachment. Utah Republican Rep. Blake Moore altered his vote procedurally.
McClintock said the allegations “fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed.” He said in a memo that the committee's impeachment articles illustrate Biden's border issues. He stated, “they stretch and distort the Constitution.”
Tuesday's vote came at a politically strange time for Mayorkas, who has been negotiating a bipartisan border security measure in the Senate with high praise from senators involved. However, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that the deal was dead, ending one of the most ambitious immigration overhauls in years. Speaker Johnson called the bipartisan proposal “dead on arrival.” Trump blasted it harshly.
Once unusual, impeachment has become a constitutional check on the executive and a political tool in the U.S. Experts say Mayorkas was caught in a policy fight with Republicans who disagree with the Biden administration's border strategy. Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, and Jeh Johnson, three former Homeland Security secretary, wrote Tuesday that impeaching the Cabinet official for policy conflicts would “jeopardize our national security.
Trump was twice impeached as president, first for abuse of authority for his phone chat with the Ukrainian president seeking dirt on then-rival Biden and again for instigating the Capitol rebellion on Jan. 6, 2021. He escaped both Senate impeachments.
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